good first stock.... try looking around for products you buy constantly that are not big brands (coca cola, pepsi, apple, microsoftopoly), if you are into sports and are usually into the latest news regarding x-sport letting you know that, for ex: X team or league will be using X product, or X company will soon launch an ad campaign for X product..... stuff like that, then you have a market you are already familiar with. then pick a company, check if its a publicly traded company, try if its owned by another company (many are just brands of bigger comps), then own stock

i personally like scottrade cause its dirt cheap (may change to ameritradem just to follow the trend and be cool), but i hear http://www.sharebuilder.com/ is mad easy and has programs designed for beginners. iv read reviews of parents teaching their 10 year olds how to use sharebuilder. again, its mad easy.